


Prankster, thy name is Stiles.

by SarahAimee



Series: Teen Wolf Goes To Hogwarts [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: F/M, Happy times, Oblivious Scott McCall, hogwarts was a happy place before harry came along, quirrell before he was evil, stiles goes to hogwarts, stiles the prankster
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-18
Updated: 2016-05-05
Packaged: 2018-03-18 11:25:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 16,428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3567911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SarahAimee/pseuds/SarahAimee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I noticed that there was a distinct lack of Harry Potter/Teen Wolf crossovers. There's even less which actually feature Harry Potter characters.<br/>I was asked to write a 'Stiles in Slytherin' story, so this is my take on it. </p><p>Stiles is excited, not only is he starting Hogwarts this year but his not-so-muggle friend Scott is coming too!<br/>After recieving his acceptance letter, pure blood Polish wizard Stiles Stilinski was shattered to think that he'd lose his muggle childhood best friend Scott McCall. After he ends up in Saint Mungos due to a prank gone wrong and sees Scott there visiting his mum, the two boys become even closer than they were before - neither of them can believe that the other is just as magical!<br/>What mischief will the terrible duo get up to within the castle walls? Especially when they meet the Weasley twins. Read on to find out!</p><p>ABANDONED</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A prank gone wrong

It was supposed to be a harmless prank on the grumpy old lady next door, who wouldn't give his biting Frisbee back. No one was supposed to get hurt, let alone him. Stiles prided himself on being the best prankster there was, so when he woke up in a bed at St. Mungos with a healer shoving Skele-gro in his face he lied and said he fell off a broom. No one needed to know that he fell off the neighbor's roof because he was trying to aim a dung bomb down her chimney.

Stiles chugged down the potion with a groan, trust him to shatter all the bones in his right hand by landing on it funny, and on the day he was going to visit Scott, too! At least his partner in crime wasn't with him this time, the last time he had broken a bone his father had to take him to a muggle hospital and he had to wear a strange plaster all over his arm for months!

As if summoned by his thoughts, the door opened and his father walked in. Stiles could tell by the look on his face that he was in serious trouble, especially since his father was supposed to be at work right now. "Hiya dad! Fancy seeing you here," the hyperactive 11 year old said cheekily, which earned him an angry glare from his father before he turned to the healer. "How long until i can take him home? He starts at Hogwarts next week and he was supposed to be going shopping this afternoon for his supplies." "You'll just need to fill in some paperwork and then he can leave with you," she replied before turning to face Stiles in the bed, "you'll need to keep that arm in a sling for a day or two, and no using that hand at all for the next 24 hours. Come along Auror Stilinski, I'll show you to the paperwork and then you can collect your boy."

* * *

 

An hour later, Stiles and his father were walking through the reception area to the main office when he suddenly stopped still, a look of pure shock on his face. "Scott?" He called out hesitantly, but there was no mistaking it. Sitting in the reception area with a bag of takeaway food on his lap was Scott McCall, his supposedly  _muggle_ best friend, and his babysitter - the very grumpy Adrian Harris. "Scott?" he asked again, when his best friend just continued to look at him in horror, "what are you doing here? This is a magical hospital. Wait, are you ok? you didn't come to see me did you? How did you even know i was here? Wait, how did you even get in here?" 

He knew he was rambling but his brain hadn't caught up to his mouth yet, as was a common problem of his. His father must have just noticed he wasn't following anymore as he was walking back towards the boys with an annoyed look on his face again. 

"Come on Stiles, I'm due back at the ministry in twenty minutes and I still need to get you home." his father said, not looking surprised in the least to see his son's best friend in the hospital waiting room, "hello Scott, are you here to bring your mother lunch? Please remind her that you're both coming over for dinner tonight to celebrate her finishing her Healer training." 

Both boys looked at Mr Stilinski in shock. Stiles because he seemed to know about his best friend being MAGICAL and Scott because he didn't seem to have recovered from the shock of seeing the Stilinski family at his mother's work yet. Scott gave a stunned nod which seemed to be enough confirmation for Mr Stilinski, who then grabbed Stiles by his good arm and started dragging him towards the fire place to floo home. 

"Scott is a wizard." Stiles muttered under his breath, "Scott is a wizard, his mum is a witch, and you knew all along." He spoke lost as he turned an accusing eye towards his father. "All those times! All through muggle primary school you made me think that i was the only person there, made me hide my magical side from my best friend! You let me think i was going off to Hogwarts and leaving him behind!" He stopped his rant with a deep annoyed huff at the chuckle his dad let out as they stepped forward in the line. 

"Well, son, I thought you'd make the connection a lot sooner. After the first few weeks, it became a bit of a running joke between Melissa and I, and a good way to practice our skills at blending in to muggle society." He explained as he stepped forwards to take a pinch of floo powder and steer Stiles into the grate next to him, "besides, you had to get your pranking skills from somewhere son. They didn't just appear out of nowhere - SLEEPY HOLLOW!" he dropped the floo powder as he spoke the last two words and Stiles had to close his eyes to stop the nausea that always came with watching the fireplaces whir by in front of them. 


	2. Diagon Alley

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so I've decided that i'm going to do this story as a series of one shots, rather than a continuous story line. This way I can move the story along much quicker and get to the good stuff sooner!  
> I'll post how long it's been since the last chapter in the notes at the beginning, so no-one should get lost! :)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is set the day after the last one.  
> Remember, Stiles' arm is still in a sling here, but it's mostly healed by now.

His leg was bouncing in anticipation, earning him dirty looks from the other patrons, but he just couldn't help it. Scott was a wizard, too! Scott was going to Hogwarts, too! The door opened and he looked up with hope in his eyes, as he had every time someone had entered The Leaky Cauldron over the last 27 minutes, but sighed as he saw that it wasn't his father. Instead, a large group of red haired children came racing through the door. A short, plump woman followed after them with a child on her hip and one hanging off her hand.

“Fred and George Weasley! You get back here this instant!” she screeched after the two smallest boys, who were chasing each other around the large table Stiles was sitting at, “your father will be here shortly and we need to be seated and eating lunch before he gets here or you’ll be getting no spending money!” at that threat the two boys froze, and Stiles was able to get a good look at them as they looked at their mother with horror on their faces. Twins! Identical twins, that was so cool!

The door opened again and Stiles looked over to see his father walking in, followed by a balding red haired man. Both of them seemed exhausted as they made their way inside, speaking in low undertones as they came closer to the large red haired family.

“Hello, Molly,” his father greeted the woman, “sorry to have kept Arthur so long. There was an issue with muggle baiting that required the Aurors to step in, and we have been held up with paperwork for the last hour.”  
“Oh, that’s perfectly alright, dear, he’s here now.” She responded with a kind smile on her face, “What are you doing here? Surely you didn't come all this way just to apologise on my husband’s behalf?”  
“No, I’m actually supposed to be meeting my son here,” his father said, looking around for Stiles for the first time since he entered, “ah, there you are, Stiles! Sorry to keep you waiting, son. We’ll grab a quick bite to eat and then we can head on in to Diagon Alley to get your supplies. Scott and Melissa will meet us at Ollivanders in an hour.” The Weasley family turned towards him as one, the little girl in Molly’s arms peaking her head through her mother’s hair before ducking her head back into her chest shyly.

“Uh, hi.” Stiles pulled the straw he had been chewing on out of his mouth and stopped jiggling his leg, suddenly uncomfortable with all of the attention he was receiving.  
“Oh, hello deary! I didn't even see you there, hiding behind my two mischief makers!” Stiles perked up at that. Mischief makers? Maybe he would have more allies in his school pranks than he thought. “You two must sit with us for lunch, John. We’re here to get supplies for the twins. I’m sure that your boy would love to get to know some more magical boys his age. You can’t have met many British Wizards yet. Stiles, was it? This is Fred and George, they’ll be starting this year at Hogwarts too. And this is Percy, he’s going into his third year. And Charlie, he’ll be in his final year this year. Quiddich captain, too! All in Griffindor, of course. And this here is Ronald, my baby boy, he won’t be starting for another two years.” Stiles nodded at each child as they were introduced to him, and couldn't help snickering along with the twins as ‘Ronald’ blushed a fiery red and glared at the table in front of him, “and this is my darling Ginevra, she’ll be starting in three years.”

At that, she swiftly turned on her feet and headed up to the bar to order lunch for her family.

 

* * *

 

Stiles and the twins, he had to figure out a way to tell them apart, got on like white on rice. He quickly discovered their love of pranking, even giving them a few ideas for non-magical pranks to play on his siblings, so that it would be harder to prove it was them. In return, they told him about their three year plan to become ‘the greatest pranksters that Hogwarts has ever known!’, agreeing that Stiles was sneaky enough in his pranks that he could be a part of them.

All too soon lunch was over and the two families parted ways, with the Weasleys heading straight for Gringotts and the two Stilinski men heading straight for Ollivanders, where an excited Scott was jumping up and down, trying to see over the crowd of shoppers.

 

* * *

 

It only took 5 minutes for a wand to choose Stiles, but that was long enough in his opinion. The elderly man was creeping him out. His wand was made of Holly wood with a Unicorn Hair core, 14 ½ inches long and supple, whatever that meant. Scott had lucked out and gotten Mr. Ollivander’s nephew/apprentice. A dark skinned American man named Deaton. Unfortunately though, he was taking much longer to find a wand than Stiles. After trying out 54 different wands, he finally found the right one: a Larch wood wand with Unicorn hair for its core, 14 ½ inches long and hard. The boys had to stifle a giggle when they were told that Scott’s wand was hard, much to the disapproval of their parents. Fred and George were entering the shop with their father as Scott and Stiles were being chaperoned out by their parents, but stopped when Stiles suddenly reached out a hand and grabbed George (he thinks) by the shoulder.

“This is my best friend Scott, the one I was telling you about?” the two boys grinned in recognition whilst Scott just looked clueless, Stiles hadn't had a chance yet to fill him in about his lunchtime adventures, “look for us on the station, ok? We’ll sit together on the train.” The four boys grinned and agreed to meet up in the very end carriage on the first of September, before parting ways to finish their shopping for the day.


	3. The Hogwarts Express

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys are finally off to Hogwarts, and they make a new friend along the way!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is set for September first, morning.

It was 10:50am, and Stiles was most definitely _not_ worried.

 

It was 10:55am, and Stiles was maybe starting to get a little bit worried. Maybe.

 

It was 10:57am, and Stiles was definitely _not_ panicking, thank you very much. His leg was jiggling because he was so excited at the thought of finally going to Hogwarts. He was only checking the clock every minute because he couldn’t wait for this adventure to begin.

 

It was 10:58am and a large group of red haired children burst through the barrier, running towards the train as fast as they could whilst carrying heavy trunks behind them. Stiles’ could admit that he may have been slightly anxious that they were going to miss the train. Slightly.

 

Scott was sitting across from Stiles in their compartment, feet up on the seat beside him as he read through their Charms textbook. He’d given up on trying to keep his best friend’s attention about fifteen minutes ago, recognizing that the other boy was too distracted to be able to hold a proper conversation, but once he saw his friend’s shoulders slump in relaxation he glanced up with a smirk. “Told you they’d make it,” he said, as he closed the book with a dull thud and swiveled around to face his best friend, “mum says that the Weasley family always arrives with barely a minute to spare, coz they've got more kids than they've got sense.”

The door burst open and Stiles looked up in excitement, but the red head that tumbled into their compartment backwards with a musical giggle was not the one he was expecting. She was followed by a sullen looking blonde boy and a shy brunette, but they all stopped when they saw that the compartment was occupied. “Oh, hello there, the brunette boy began, as his two friends shared a glance, “sorry, we didn't realise that this compartment was taken already. I’m Danny, this is Lydia and Jackson.” The girl, Lydia, looked over the two boys already in the compartment before giving a haughty sniff and spinning around, flouncing out of the compartment without saying a word. The sullen blonde followed after her without a backward glance, leaving the boy who introduced himself as Danny standing in the doorway awkwardly. “Uh, sorry about them, I guess we’re finding another compartment. I’ll see you guys at the sorting?” He asked. After a short nod from Scott, Danny left the compartment in search of his moody friends.

The door had barely closed before it was thrown open again, the Weasley twins and a Dark skinned boy with dreadlocks bounding in, laughing hard at something in the corridor. The twins turned towards Stiles and asked as one, “what happened with him?” The boy was still staring at the closed door, mouth agape and a glazed look over his eyes. At a swift kick in the shins from Scott he snaps out of his stupor, shaking his head as a grin slowly spreads over his face.

“I think I’m in love.” Stiles stated, to dumbfounded looks from the other four boys in the compartment, “Wasn't she perfect, Scott? With her strawberry-blonde hair, and those eyes … Scott, I’m going to marry that girl.” At that, the twins shared a devious grin before leaping onto Stiles and wrestling him to the ground between the seats.

 

* * *

 

By the time the food trolley came around, the boys were joking around like old friends. Fred had introduced the other boy as their best friend Lee, saying that they’d met after a prank they’d pulled had landed their younger brother in St. Mungos and they’d gone to visit him there.

“Anything from the trolley, dears?” the trolley lady asked sweetly, but all five boys shook their heads and pulled out their packed lunches.

“Dude, I've got it!” Lee yelled unexpectedly, causing Scott to jump and spill his crisps in his lap as the silence was broken.  
“Got what?” he asked cautiously.  
“I know why you two are so familiar to me!” Lee started, “Scott, does your mum work at the hospital?” He asked the quiet boy excitedly.  
“Well, yea, sort of.” Scott explained, “She just finished her training there a few days ago. She’s only got one more year of on the job training, and then she’ll be a fully trained healer. Why?”    
“Because! Your mum trained under my mum, and she had a picture of the two of you on their desk!” Lee said excitedly, bouncing around in his seat now, “she’s the Healer in Charge of the “Magical Bugs and Diseases” ward. So which one of you is McCall? It’d have to be you, right? ‘Coz you've got the same dark hair as her. She was always complaining to my mum about the trouble you two would get into, and my mum was hoping we’d never meet ‘coz of all the extra trouble we’d get into! I can’t wait to write home and tell her we’re friends now!

“Wait, you’re Healer Jordan’s son?” Stiles asked, sharing a nervous glance with Scott.  
“Yea, that’s her!” Lee said excitedly, not noticing the glances shared between the two boys sitting opposite him, “Have you met her, too?”  
“Yea, she, uh, she makes a really nice treacle. She gives some to my mum every now and then to pass on to us,” Scott jumped in and said, before quickly changing the topic, “so, your dad works in the Muggle office, right? Does he ever bring stuff home?” he asked Fred, who immediately launched into a story about a car that he’d brought home the other week, that the boys were sworn not to tell their mother about. George watched on curiously as the two boys shared a relieved sigh, not having missed how anxious they were when the topic of Lee’s mum’s job came up, but filed the thought away for later when Fred jabbed him in the side to get his attention.

The rest of the train journey passed with the boys all sharing stories about various muggle devices that they had come across whilst growing up, but George couldn't help but notice that Stiles remained mostly silent and still for the rest of the journey, only joining in the conversations when prompted by someone else to give him opinion about a particular muggle gadget or toy. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, we've had some more Teen Wolf characters introduced, and of COURSE Stiles is 'in love' the the glorious Lydia Martin. How could I write a story without including that?  
> And oooh, what's this about Lee's mum that has Scott and Stiles so worried? I guess that you'll have to read on to find out!  
> Ok, next chapter is the sorting ... I wonder what chapter everyone will be in?


	4. The sorting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two chapters in one week?  
> This one is an extra treat for you guys for Easter.  
> The boys are sorted into their house(s?), but what house will they all end up in?  
> There will be mentions of other Teen Wolf characters in this chapter, but they're not names specifically. See if you can pick them out!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hiya guys!  
> I've decided to turn this into a series, with one shots from other character's perspectives being loaded up as we pass those points in this story.  
> I've also uploaded a complete class list for Stiles' year. Some of his year mates are mentioned here, but if anyone is curious about the whole year level, then head on over to 'Students at Hogwarts' and check out the class list!  
> Also, this chapter is still September 1st, but that night at the Sorting.

The man who met them at the station was huge.

He was so tall, Stiles had to take a step back just so he could see his face around his beard, and he had a voice that was so loud it made his head hurt.

But he also had a really cute puppy dog trailing after him, so Stiles decided that he couldn't be too bad. Puppies had a way of knowing if people were good or not, so if the dog loved the guy then Stiles decided that he was alright.

 

* * *

 

 

There wasn't room for all of them in the boat, so Stiles and Scott shared one with a small blonde girl who looked like he would blow over with the slightest breeze and a dark skinned boy who glared at them when they took too long to get in. The trip across the lake took too long, but it was over too quickly and they were pulling up at the base of a set of stairs. The blonde girl fell out of the boat and landed in the mud, but luckily they were the last ones out so he didn't think anyone else has seen. Unfortunately, she had gotten a large mud stain on the back of her robes when she fell, which she didn't seem to have noticed yet. She seems really timid, so rather than point it out to her and embarrass her, Stiles pulled out his wand and muttered “scourgify.” It was an easy cleaning spell that he used to see his mum using around the house all the time. He’d tried it out with his dad’s wand a couple of times after he’d gotten dirty setting up a prank when he was supposed to be in his room, and it got rid of almost all of the stain on her robes.

A thin, imposing teacher opened the large double doors in front of them at that stage and he was too distracted by the thought of dinner and the Sorting to notice his new friends looking at him with wonder after seeing him performing such a spell so casually.

“Follow after me quietly,” the Professor began, and all of the first years fell silent at her stern glare as they followed her into a small chamber, Welcome to Hogwarts, my name is Professor McGonagall. In a few moments you will pass through these doors and join your classmates, but before you take your seats you must be sorted into your houses. The houses are: Griffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. While you are, your house will be like your family. Your triumphs will earn you points, while any rule breaking will lose you points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup. Please take this time to make yourself presentable, I will be back to collect you shortly.”

“Dude, that chick is scary stern,” Scott whispered not so quietly to Stiles after Professor McGonagall had disappeared through the door, “how do you reckon we’ll be sorted?”  
“I dunno. I asked dad, but he either had no idea or he wouldn't tell me,” Stiles replied as he tucked his shirt in properly, “and they don’t have houses at Durmstrang. But it shouldn't be too hard, I mean, there are _muggleborns_ in this group. It has to be some sort of test that we can all pass!”

The blonde girl with the mud stain glared at him at this statement and his cheeks flushed red, obviously their conversation wasn't as quiet as he had thought. All around them students were nervously discussing what they thought the test was, and what house they thought they would be sorted into. All except Lydia and her two friends. Lydia had a compact mirror in her hand and was fixing her hair in the reflection, while the two boys were standing silently on either side of her. With a snap, she closed the mirror and turned to Stiles with a haughty air.  
“Honestly, they’ll let anyone in these days. What is that accent, anyway? Polish?” Without waiting for a response, she turned around and started talking to the kind boy who introduced himself as Danny in low tones that no-one could overhear.  
“My family is a legacy at Hogwarts, there’s not been a Whittemore sorted out of Slytherin for twelve generations now. My father told me what the sorting involves and trust me, if it were done properly it would weed out all the _muggleborns_ and throw them straight back out again.” Jackson began, but before he could continue the doors opened and Professor McGonagall was ushering them all into the Great Hall.

 

* * *

 

 

It was a hat. A hat that sung crazy songs about house unity and forest creatures. A hat was going to decide where he would be for the rest of his schooling career.

Stiles looked around the hall, recognizing a few students here and there from his trips in to the ministry with his father, but not knowing anyone well enough to wave at them. A sharp nudge to his side from Lee brought his focus back to the as ‘Diggory, Cedric’ was sorted in Hufflepuff. ‘Glass, Marilyn’ was also sorted in Hufflepuff and ran to sit next to the dark skinned boy that Stiles had sat across from in the boat before Stiles again lost interest in the sorting. He was staring at the giant man from the station when ‘Martin, Lydia’ was called, and the girl pushed her way past Stiles to sit on the seat.

It had been nearly five minutes, and Lydia was still on the stool. Stiles could see her muttering furiously, arguing with the hat, as someone behind him said something about a ‘hatstall’, whatever that meant. Finally the hat shouted out “SLYTHERIN!” and the hat came off her head. Stiles felt another nudge to his side and looked over to see one of the twins (he thinks is was Fred?) leaning in to whisper in his ear, “tough luck, mate. Don’t worry, we’ll find you a nice, non-evil girl.” He was saved from responding as Scott’s name was called and he moved forward to sit on the stool. The hat had barely touched his head before it was shouting out “GRIFFINDOR!” He gave his best friend a double thumbs up, which was returned with a grin as he jumped off the stool and almost ran towards the far table to sit with Lee.

Stiles knew there would be a fair few people before he was called, so instead of paying attention he watched Lydia cheer on every single person who was sorted. She seemed upset when her friend was sorted into Ravenclaw, but otherwise kept a serene smile on her face the whole time the sorting was happening.

“Stilinski, Zygmunt.” He winced as McGonagall butchered the pronunciation of his name, hearing snickers coming from the twins beside him. He shot them a glare as he made his way up to the stool.

“Well hello there, don’t you have an interesting mind.” He jumped at the sound of the voice in his mind. He’d gathered from other students that it would talk to him, but it was still creepy to feel in practice, “ah, you want to go into Griffindor with your friend, I see?” the hat continued.  
“Well, yea, he’d be lost without me.” He replied, feeling very foolish at talking to a hat.  
“Yes, but would you be so lost without him? You are quite sly, I see. And you have a trickster’s mind. I haven’t seen a trickster’s mind quite like yours in 19 years. But you don’t have the same reckless disregard for your own safety as that boy, and your magical core is darker than his was.”

He was about to argue that he wasn't dark, he was a good wizard, when he was cut off by the hat shouting out “SLYTHERIN!”  
The hat was pulled off his hat and he could see shock written across his best friend’s face and twin looks of horror on Fred and George’s faces. He was sure he had the same look on his own face as he felt a push at his back and Professor McGonagall pushed him in the direction of his new house.

Slytherin. His new house Slytherin. Where his best friend was not. He was in a state of shock as he stumbled his way over to the table, not even noticing who he was sitting next to as he looked forlornly across the hall at Scott and Lee. It wasn't until the blonde boy Jackson slid in beside him that he shook his head and took in his surroundings. These would be the people he would be living with from now on.

The food appeared on the table all at once and he shook off the rest of his shock. It didn't matter what houses they were in. Scott and Stiles were practically brothers. No house rivalry was going to tear them apart he decided as he reached for the gravy to pour over his roast beef. Besides, think of all the pranks that they could pull now? They would make this work, they had to. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos to whoever picked up that the trickster from 19 years previously was James Potter. I am pretty sure that I got my math right there!  
> Mwahahahaha! I'm evil, separating the boys like that! But honestly, though, this is a 'Stiles in Slytherin' fic, and as if Scott would be in anything other than Griffindor?  
> Next chapter will see the fall-out from the sorting, and will hopefully be up by next Wednesday.  
> Happy Easter everybody! :)


	5. Tookey the House Elf

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stiles waits around to talk to Scott about their house placements, determined that it won't stop them from being friends.  
> He also makes a few new friends in an unexpected place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is set: September 2nd, Stiles' second day at Hogwarts.

Stiles had waited at the Slytherin table until long after the breakfast dishes had cleared, but neither Scott nor his new friends appeared at the table. He had to return to his common room at around 10am to receive his new timetable from Professor Snape, but he quickly returned to the Great Hall with his textbooks for his first day classes, determined to wait them out. They had to come down to eat at some stage.

He had almost read through the first two chapters of his potions textbook when the lunch dishes appeared and he had to clear the table for fear of getting food all over them. He nearly dropped his fruit when he saw Lydia look at him with what looked like an approving smile as she saw he was studying already, but he blinked and she was already talking to the girl next to her, Sadie, a girl with such a thick Scottish accent that Stiles could barely understand her without paying close attention. He looked back down at his book with a frown on his face. Hadn't she just stated last night that she didn't like people with different accents? And his was barely noticeable, too!

Girls are weird.

 

* * *

 

He was reading through his transfiguration textbook by the time the dinner dishes arrived. It occurred to him that he had never sat still for so long before, and he couldn't even remember the last time that he had spent an entire Saturday indoors. He still hadn't see a single first year Griffindor boy at their table all day.

 

Half an hour into dinner he had given up on waiting for his supposed best friend, resigned to the fact that he was avoiding the young Slytherin. He lost his appetite early on at dinner when he caught their head of house looking at him with what looked like pity or sympathy. He had heard that Professor Snape was notorious for not caring much about his students, though he showed some favoritism for those in his own house as no other teacher would, so for the supposedly unmovable teacher to look at him like that, he must look ridiculously pathetic.

With a heavy sigh he closed his textbook and shoved it into his book bag. His father had charmed it to be feather light and put an undetectable extension charm on it for him, so it was easy for him to carry around a day’s worth of books at once. He waved goodbye to the boy sitting next to him, whose name he hadn't bothered to learn yet, and trudged out of the hall.

 

* * *

 

He had been walking around the dungeons, trying to memorize the layout of this section of the castle when he saw it up ahead – the flash of Weasley-red hair on two people disappearing around the corner in front of him. He stood in shock for a moment before hurrying after them as quietly as he could. They always seemed to turn the next corner just before he got there, but Stiles was determined and kept running after them.

They finally stopped, panting for breath, in front of a painting of a fruit bowl. Stiles was about to approach when he realised that it was not his new friends but their older brother, Charlie, and a girl from Hufflepuff. She giggled into his shoulder as he reached forward and … tickled the painting? Stiles was about to turn around and try to find his way back to his common room, when he heard the wheezing breath of the caretaker behind him. Figuring that he’d rather be caught out of bed this late by the 7th year students than the caretaker, he quickly darted forward and caught the painting before it could swing fully closed. He quickly slipped through the crack, closing it a mere second before Filch and his cat rounded the corner.

He turned around after closing the portrait, expecting to see a staircase or passageway of some sort. What he saw instead shocked him so much that he couldn't do anything but stand and stare. Standing in the middle of a room as large as the Great Hall above them was Charlie and a girl who he swore did NOT have pink hair two minutes ago, surrounded by dozens of house elves. He’d never seen a gathering of so many in his life, there had to be nearly a hundred here!

He felt something pulling at his robes and looked down to see an elf standing at his feet, looking up at him with excitement in its eyes. “Master Weasley and Mistress Tonks has brought us another guest!” it squeaked in its high pitched voice, alerting the two older students two his presence, “you has brought us the one who doesn't eat. He sits at the table all day, but doesn't eat anything we put there. We kept putting different dishes in front of you, but you never ate much. Does you not like our cooking, young Master?” at this thought, the elf suddenly looked like it was going to cry, and Stiles felt horrible all over again. He hadn't thought about how the food had appeared on the tables, hadn't even noticed that there had been an abundance of choices near him. No wonder people had sat next to him, even when he had been so antisocial all day.  
“No, of course not!” he exclaimed, bending down to be on the same level as the creature. His mum had always told him to be kind to every creature that he came across, as he had no idea how much they could really understand of his interactions. “I was just not feeling very happy today, and I can’t eat when I’m sad. I was hoping I could get a warm glass of milk, if that’s ok? It’s what my mum always used to give me to cheer me up.” The elf looked overjoyed at knowing that Stiles hadn't disliked their cooking, and at the thought of being able to do something to cheer him up. It tugged at his robes again, pulling him towards the other students who were watching the exchange with wonder and curiosity, but schooled their faces into cheerful smiles as the young Slytherin came towards them. By the time Stiles was sat down opposite them at the table, he had a glass of warm milk and a plate of hot chocolate chip cookies in front of him.

He dipped one into his milk and made sure to show on his face how delicious it really was. “Thank-you so much! This is exactly what I needed!” He exclaimed with maybe too much gusto, but he knew that elves had a fragile temperament and were easily upset. He also knew that he couldn't keep calling this elf an ‘it’ in his head, so he asked, “What is your name?”

 “My name is Tookey!” the elf who had led him over exclaimed, “you is a very kind Master indeed! What is we to call you?”  
“Please, call me Stiles” he started, but was cut off by the girl who now had long, very dark purple hair, giggling into her hand.  
“That’s not what Professor McGonagall tried to call you last night.” She said. At his glare, she held out her hand across the table to him. “Nymphadora Tonks, 7th year Hufflepuff, but I’ll call you Stiles if you call me Tonks. I totally get taking the last name because of an unfortunate first name.”

Stiles grinned at that, his first real grin of the day, and reached over to grasp her hand with his small one. “Deal.”

 

* * *

 

Tonks and Stiles traded horror stories of people trying to pronounce their names as the three of them slowly worked their way through the plate of cookies on the table, Tookey watching on with joy every time he swallowed another bite. He must have really worried them when he sat at the table all day and refused to do more than nibble on the food that they put before him. It wasn't until they had nearly finished the plate of cookies and there was a lull in conversation that he finally had the urge to ask Charlie the question he had been burning to ask since they’d sat down.  
“Charlie,” he started hesitantly, suddenly unsure that he wanted to know the answer to his question, “um, have you seen your brothers today? Or …” he trailed of, unable to say ‘or my friend Scott’ as he wasn't sure if Scott would want to be friends with him anymore. The boys had made it pretty clear on the train ride up that they thought the only people that went into Slytherin were pure evil, and there was clearly some major house rivalry going on between the two houses. He had hoped that their friendship was strong enough to stand up to the hate, but after today he wasn't sure anymore.

Charlie looked incredibly uncomfortable and Stiles’ heart sank even further. “Look, kid, I don’t know what’s the matter with my brothers ‘coz you seem alright to me – you can’t help what house you got sorted into.” Stiles tried to smile at the praise, but he knew that it wasn't very convincing from the look on Charlie’s face. “I will tell you this, though. None of the first year boys left their dormitory all day. They conned one of the second year students to bring them up food at every meal. I’m not sure what they were up to, but I was in the common room when I wasn't in the Hall eating, and they didn't leave the tower at all.”

So Griffindor House was in one of the towers? Stiles filed that information away for future use, sure that it would come in handy one day. He was almost certain now that the boys had stayed up in their tower all day to avoid him. He knew Melissa would be mad that Scott wasn't getting the most out of his Hogwarts experience, and even though the boy wasn't talking to him at the moment that didn't mean that Stiles didn't still care about his childhood friend.

“Look, I get that they’re trying to avoid a confrontation or whatever, but I’m not planning on causing one. If they don’t wanna be friends with a ‘stinky Slytherin’, then that’s fine by me. I get it, I do. Now I know where the kitchens are, I’ll eat my meals in here. They shouldn't have to miss out on my account. I know that the boys must all be itching to explore this place from top to bottom before classes start on Monday.” He gave another attempt at a smile before reaching forward to give Tonks a fist bump. Turning around to face the elves, who surely must be getting tired by now, he searched out the face of the one who had greeted him by the door. “Thank you, Tookey, and thank you everyone else. I will see you guys tomorrow, if that’s ok?” at their excited smiles, he finally allowed a genuine smile back on his face, before slipping out of the kitchens and slinking back to his common room silently.

He didn't look back at the older students that he’d left behind him, but if he had he would have seen the furious look on the red-head’s face. Charlie looked towards Tonks, seeing a matching look of anger on her face. “I honestly don’t understand how your brothers didn't end up in Slytherin, what with how sneaky they are with their pranks, but that kid is as loyal as they come. You had better talk some sense into them, because he looks absolutely miserable!” she exclaimed, her hair slowly turning a bright red as she went on.  
“Don’t you worry, Tonks.” Charlie said, a look of determination coming over his face, “I’ll most definitely be having words with them. This childishness ends tonight.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oooh, the boys are in trouble!  
> Over the next few days, i'll be uploading that confrontation from a surprise perspective as a separate story.  
> The chapter after this will be with the boys and Stiles, and then there will be a time jump and a prank involved!


	6. Tall, Dark and Brooding.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stiles makes friends with some house elves, and runs into Nymphadora Tonks talking with a fellow Hufflepuff 7th year ... I wonder who it could be ;)  
> He also has his first confrontation with the Griffindor first year boys since the train ride up. How will it go? Will the boys make-up? Or will I have to write them through some angst filled brooding sessions until they realise that they're all idiots and should just get along?  
> Read on to find out!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sunday 3rd September-Monday 4th September.

He had successfully avoided the Great Hall all day. Tookey was ecstatic when he arrived in the Kitchens the next morning, and by lunch time he already knew three more elves by name. Between mealtimes, he was sitting in the dark Slytherin common room, observing his fellow classmates. As he’d suspected on the train, Jackson was a ‘pureblood prince’. Used to commanding respect and adoration simply based on his family’s name and blood status. The other two first year boys flocked to him, preening over his stories and belongings, even though from what Stiles could tell, they were both pure-blooded Wizards too.

It was the girls that confused him. He’d tried again after breakfast to gain Lydia Martin’s attention, but she looked straight past him to the floral arrangement on top of the fire next to him, commenting on how lovely the blooms smelt. He thought they smelt icky, and they made his nose itch. She seemed to enjoy the girls doting on her just as much as her friend Jackson did, but every now and then Stiles would catch her looking bored of whatever the girls were chittering on about, before she remembered where she was and pulled a smile back on to her face. He hadn’t seen that blonde girl since lunch the previous day, but it didn’t look like her classmates were missing her presence at all.

He looked back down at the letter he’d been slowly drafting over the course of the day to send to his father. He didn’t want his dad to worry about him, especially since he’d kicked up such a fuss about not returning to Poland and attending Durmstrang, the school that both of his parents went to.

_Hey Dad!_

_So, I don’t know if you’ll have heard it from people at work yet, but I got sorted into Slytherin House at school. The common room is kind of dark, and I think that it’s under the lake, but the fires keep it nice and warm._

_Before you say anything, no – I haven’t touched the fires. And I haven’t gotten into trouble yet, either. Probably because me and Scott got split up. He’s in this house called Griffindor. From what I gather it’s up in one of the towers, but everyone is super secretive about where the entrances are to their common rooms._

_I reckon I’ll have them all figured out by Christmas. Maybe Halloween, if I can make friends with someone from Ravenclaw. I think I’ve already figured out where Hufflepuff is._

_I was in the Kitchens this morning – did you know that Hogwarts have over a hundred house elves??? I’m not exaggerating, they really do! I made friends with this elf called Tookey yesterday, and she made sure that I got the best food at the table. I was wondering why everyone was wanting to sit next to me._

_Anyway, I was leaving after breakfast this morning, and Vardey – That’s Tookey’s wife – wanted me to take some cookies back to the common room with me to share around (I didn’t eat them all myself, I swear!). She follows me out, but then pulled me back in the portrait when some students ducked out from behind these barrels in the hallway. Anyway, I check behind the barrels, and there’s nothing there! So either it’s a secret passageway, or it’s the entrance to the Hufflepuff common room._

_They sort us into house groups by putting this old hat on our heads, and it reads our thoughts. Professor McGonagall couldn’t read my first name properly, so hopefully she takes the hint and calls me Stiles when I have classes with her next week. Hopefully the other teachers do too. My head of house has also agreed to do this. Everyone says he’s so mean, but I don’t think so. Our science teacher at that muggle school was worse._

_Anyway, the hat sits on your head and it decides whether you’re more cunning, smart, loyal or brave, and then you get put in a house based on that. Sometimes it can’t decide and then there’s a ‘hatstall’. There was one this year. This beautiful girl who ended up in Slytherin, she was arguing with the hat, dad! I swear, she’s the prettiest girl I’ve ever seen. Even prettier than Ms. McCall, but maybe not as pretty as mum was. No-one could even be as pretty as mum._

He wasn’t sure why he’d mentioned his mum. It was still a sore point for his dad, who didn’t like mentioning her at all. It was one of the reasons why Scott and Stiles were so close. Scott’s dad had left about the same time that his mum died, so they talked a lot about it to each other. Their parents wouldn’t talk about it around them, so sometimes when they had sleepovers, they would pull the blankets up over their heads and tell stories about their parents to each other.

Thinking about Scott made him upset again, and the whole point of writing this letter was to distract him. He set about finishing the letter, so that he could post it off before dinner time.

_She won’t talk to me. She says it’s because I have a funny accent, but then she talks to this girl Sadie who has an even bigger accent than me so I don’t think that’s it. Girls are weird, dad._

_I already read through the first few chapters of my textbooks yesterday, so hopefully I will be able to answer any questions that come up tomorrow and I can earn some house points. That’s kind of a big deal here, the house points. At the end of the year they award a trophy thing to the house with the most points and everything! Slytherin have won it the last few years, and some of the older kids sat us down on the first night and told us that we weren’t to lose them the house cup in their last year by mucking about, so we’ve gotta be sneaky with any tricks we wanna play on other students and not get caught._

_Not that I’ll be playing any tricks though, coz you told me not to._

_Anyway, that’s really all for now. I hope you’re eating well. Just because I’m not there, doesn’t mean that you can go eating junk food!_

_Love,_

_Stiles._  

The letter jumped all over the place, giving a little bit of detail but not too much. That was how Stiles’ brain worked, though. He was never able to concentrate on anything for too long. He hoped that all of the different information would be enough to distract his dad from the fact that he hadn’t talked about friends at all in the letter. Well, human friends anyway. He didn’t think that house elves counted.

With a tap of his wand, he sealed the letter and got up. His dad had taught him how to do that, so that he could seal up his essays. Magic seemed to come easy to him, his mum had always said she expected nothing less of him. He had already tried some of the charms that he’d read the day before and they seemed to work ok, but he didn’t want to be picked on for being too good, so he decided not to show exactly how good he was straight away.

It was nearly four in the afternoon by the time he had finished his letter, so he set out to find the Owlery to send his letter off before dinner. He had a vague idea of where it was, and he knew that to start off with he just had to head up. He was five floors up when he had to take a breather. Physical exercise was not his thing, and there were so many stairs in this castle! It was as he was taking a break that he saw the 7th year Hufflepuff girl again. She had long black hair today, and was walking past him with another Hufflepuff boy. He wasn’t going to call out to her, not sure if it was ok for him to talk to her in public, but tall, dark and brooding next to her had caught him staring and was giving him a dirty look.

“Heya Tonks!” he called out with a cheerful wave and a smile.  
“Stiles?” She look over him curiously. Her hair shortening and turning bright pink seemingly without her knowledge, “What are you doing up here all by yourself?”  
“I was trying to find the Owlery, but I got a little puffed so I’m taking a break.” He replied, waving the letter to his father in the air, “I wanted to let my dad know that I did, in fact, manage to make it into a house, and that no I haven’t burnt down the whole school yet.” Tonks giggled at that, moving closer so that they weren’t blocking the hallway if anyone came past.

“Who sealed the letter for you?” Tall, dark and brooding asked, and wow he needed to get this guy’s name because if not he was going to accidentally call him that!  
“I did it myself?” he said, with a confused look on his face, “my dad showed me the spell last week, and I tried it out and it worked! Now I don’t have to have envelopes! Hi, I’m Stiles, what’s your name?”

“Derek,” he stated, somehow managing to keep up with Stiles’ fast chatter, “that’s an advanced spell. They don’t teach that until third year charms. You sure you did it yourself?”  
Stiles was confused. It wasn’t that hard of a spell, why would they wait so long to teach it? Plus, it was really handy. He said as such, but Derek just raised his eyebrows and didn’t reply.

“Well,” Tonks said, breaking the awkward silence that had fallen, “if you’re trying to find the Owlery, you’re on the right track. Just keep walking down this corridor, then take a right and follow that corridor to the end. It’ll take you to an outside staircase. Follow that to the top, and you’re there.”

“Thanks Tonks!” Stiles said, jumping down off the seat, “and it was nice to meet you mister 'silent judging with the eyebrows'.” He could hear Tonks loud guffaws of laughter following him as he ran away from the pair and headed towards the Owlery.

 

* * *

 

He had successfully managed to avoid seeing anyone else outside of his house for the remainder of the weekend, but come Monday morning he knew that there was no use hiding away in his common room anymore. That didn’t stop him from taking as long as possible getting ready in the morning, arriving at the Great Hall just in time to eat breakfast before the food disappeared and it was time to head to his first class. He had decided against eating in the kitchen this morning as he needed assistance to get to his first class, and the 5th year prefects were showing them to classes for the first week as long as they were ready on time to be taken from the Great Hall to their classes. That hadn’t stopped him from taking a seat that faced away from Griffindor table, though. Just because he had classes with them today, that didn’t mean that he had to watch the four of them joking around and having fun together during breakfast.

 

* * *

 

They were lined up outside the Potions classroom ten minutes before the class had begun when he was accosted by the Weasley twins. They each grabbed one of his arms and pulled him away from his classmates. He sighed heavily, waiting for them to tell him that they didn’t want anything to do with him anymore. It was what he’d been putting off all Sunday, especially after he’d run into Charlie and had his suspicions confirmed that they were avoiding him.

He was confused when he was then tackled in a bear hug by his ex-best friend and the three boys that he had begun to think of as his close friends.

“I’m sorry.” Scott mumbled into his shoulder. “I’m an idiot and you have every right not to talk to me but I got caught up in this stupid house rivalry and I thought you’d be better off without me hanging around and you wouldn’t wanna be my friend anymore, so I made the boys stay upstairs with me because I didn’t want to face you saying you didn’t wanna see me anymore and Charlie was right I’m an idiot for thinking that and I shouldn’t have left you by yourself all weekend and I get it if you hate me but I still wanna be your friend if you do.” He was wheezing for breath by the end of his short speech and Stiles was stunned. They still wanted to be friends with him?

“Get off me.” He said, and they all let go of him as though he’d punched them. Standing in a line in front of him, faces drawn like they were expecting bad news. “You’re right, you’re all idiots. You are idiots for not realising the potential we have here! Dudes, inter-house pranking is going to be so much easier now!” He knew he shouldn’t let them off so easily, but they looked so happy and hopeful after he said that and he couldn’t take that from them.

That’s not to say that they were completely forgiven, of course. He was so going to get them back for putting him through hell this weekend, but that could wait. He would wait until they were not expecting it, and then prank them all when they had their guards down. It was with this thought in mind that he followed his best friends into the Potions classroom and towards the back bench. He didn’t even notice the strange looks that he was getting from his fellow Slytherins, or the confusion that flitted across Professor Snape’s face briefly as he saw one of his own sitting in the Lion’s den. His mind was already going over some of the advanced potions that he had read about in his father’s library, trying to decide which one to use for his prank.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello Derek!  
> He only makes a small cameo in this chapter, which was entirely unplanned but it makes their future interactions make a lot more sense.  
> Now that I've got the boys all friends again, there will be a bit of a time jump to the next chapter, which will be set around Halloween.


	7. Payback time.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so we have our first major time jump in this chapter.  
> Prepare to see Stiles enact his revenge on his friends in the form of a hilarious prank, aided by his friends the house elves.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set: 27th-31st October.

Stiles had learnt pretty quickly to keep his head down and try not to be noticed. His fellow housemates didn't take very kindly to his best friends all being from Griffindor, even though their self-proclaimed ‘leader’ was best friends with a Ravenclaw. So he kept his head down in class, never volunteering information but always having the correct answer when called upon by the teacher. He couldn't help always getting Outstandings or Exceeds Expectations in his essays, even if the teachers did always tell him that he needed to stay on track, but he always made sure to never be the first in the class to master a new spell or charm and he always made his potions slightly wrong so that it wouldn't be the only one that turned out perfect.

He didn't mind, though. Those students who always gave correct answers were mocked behind hands in the courtyard or the Great Hall, even by their classmates, and he was able to get away with a lot more when the teachers thought he wasn't capable of having cast a tripping jinx on that kid who laughed at the muggleborns in Hufflepuff for not knowing what Quiddich was, or casting the leg-locker curse on Jackson as he was on his way to try and woo a second year girl in their common room. It suited him just fine if people thought he was a bit weak magically, and it served his purposes if they underestimated him.

He was on his way to the library, to try and sneak an advanced potions book out of the restricted section, when he was cornered by three 4th year Slytherins.

“Well, well, well. Look who we have here, boys!” Marcus Flint shouted gleefully, “if it isn't the little traitor squib. Where are you crawling off to, firsty? Going to go and catch up with those Griffindor scum again?”

Stiles sighed heavily and turned to face the four older boys. His wand was already in his hand, hidden under his long sleeve and ready to be used at a moment’s notice. “Hello Flint. I was just heading up to the library to get a book out for my potion’s essay.” He said, raising his book bag with his left hand, “can this hurry up? The library is closing soon and I really need to get there before that happens or I’ll never get my essay done in time.” In truth, he had finished that essay the night it was set. He’d been beaten up by some of the 7th years on his way to dinner and had woken up in the hospital wing. Madam Pomphrey had fixed him up but refused to let him leave, so he had sat in the hospital wing for the rest of the night and slowly written out his essay on ‘The Magical Properties of Armadillo Bile’.

The boys started to advance on him, wands drawn, when they heard footsteps coming up behind them.  
“Just what do you boys think you’re doing?” he heard a familiar voice ask. He couldn't see around the older boys, who had formed a barricade blocking him from view.

“Nothing that concerns you, Hale.” Flint spat out, hatefully.  
“I beg to differ,” the voice said again, and Stiles was almost certain now that it belonged to Tonks’ friend Derek, “four 4th year Slytherins prowling the corridors with their wands out when it’s nearly curfew time? Surely you realise how suspicious that is. Especially when I can see that you’re hiding someone smaller behind you. Which leads me to think that you’re not out here showing a younger student their way back to the common rooms. Five points each from Slytherin for having your wands out in the hallway.”

One of Flint’s cronies started to argue, but was cut off by Derek, “don’t make me take more for bullying a younger student. Now get back to your common room, where you belong!” The boys scampered off and Stiles was finally able to get a clear view of Derek, who was watching the boys as they turned the corner behind him.

“Stiles?” Derek said, surprise clear on his face as he turned back around to see who it was that he had just rescued, “I wouldn't think that they’d be picking on someone from their own house. What are you doing out so late, anyway?”

“I, uh, I wanted to go to the library.” Stiles said quietly, not sure whether he was about to get in trouble as well. “Thanks for that, but, uh, you didn't have to. It was only a little bit of joking around between housemates.”

“It didn't look like that.” Derek said, his face back to the blank mask that Stiles had seen him wearing so often over the last few weeks. Not that he was watching the older student, or anything. Stiles just noticed things. He sat and he watched, and he filed facts away for future knowledge. ‘Knowledge is power’, his mum had always said, and Stiles liked being the one who had all of the knowledge. “Well, unless you’re going to make a complaint, I can’t do anything to stop them from ‘joking around’ with you. Get back to your common room, you can go to the library tomorrow.”

 

* * *

 

He met up with Scott, Fred, George and Lee in the Great Hall on Saturday morning, sitting down the end of the Griffindor table like he usually did, and they discussed their plans for their first big prank. Little did they know, Stiles had chosen this moment to finally get the boys back for deserting him that first weekend of school.

The boys knew that for some reason, the best food always appeared around Stiles, so they didn't think twice about the purple cake that appeared on the table towards the end of breakfast. Stiles had been down to the kitchens earlier that morning, and had convinced the house elves to put some Dogbreath potion into the cake mix, and serve it up in front of his friends. He was slowly making his way through a bowl of oatmeal, listening to them throw around ideas like ‘convince Peeves to throw water balloons at Snape’ and ice over the doors so that no one can leave the feast’. The boys had all grabbed for the cake as it appeared, exactly as Stiles had thought they would. It only took a few minutes to work, and soon the four of them were gagging at the smell. Stiles smirked and cast a bubblehead charm over his own head, before grabbing a piece of toast and walking out of the hall. The four boys soon cottoned on to him being behind the prank and chased after him, careful not to breathe in each other’s directions as they ran.

Stiles had led them off to a small, unused classroom near the Great Hall and stood with a smirk on his face as the boys rushed in after him, anger clear on their faces.

“What the hell did you do?” Fred shouted, “And since when could you do a bubblehead charm? That’s, like, really advanced stuff! Percy hasn't even learnt it yet!” he turned to George to confirm this fact, but had to gag and turn away as his brother breather in his face.

“Tookey!” Stiles called out, a smirk on his face. The house elf appeared with a small pop, a small tray with four glasses on it in front of her.  
“Yes Master Stiles? Is you being ready for the antidote yet?” She asked him, glaring at Lee as he lunged forward to try and grab one of the glasses off her tray.  
“Boys, this it Tookey. Remember how I told you I’d get you back for abandoning me that first weekend?” the four boys all looked shame-faced at the reminder. “Well, Tookey here didn't like how sad you made me, so she helped me to get you back by slipping Dogbreath potion into that cake. Have we learnt our lesson now?” he asked in his best Professor McGonagall impersonation.

“Yes, we’ll never get on your bad side again, or stop talking to you because of some stupid house rivalry!” Scott gasped out, trying not to inhale through his nose, “now can we please have the antidote?”

He nodded once, and Tookey held the tray forward for the boys. He had mixed the antidote into sarsaparilla juice, in order to make taking the otherwise flavorless potion as foul as possible. At the looks of relief on his friends’ faces, he popped the bubble surrounding his head and led them over to a table on the other side of the classroom, where he had a potion brewing.

“Now, while your ideas earlier were cute, and all, I thought we wanted to be the uncontested pranksters of the school?” He asked them, turning his back to them to lift the lid off his cauldron and check its progress. “Did you know that the kitchens are run by over a hundred house elves? They’re devilishly tricky creatures, and fiercely loyal. If only there was someone in the school to whom they felt especially loyal to, and whom they wouldn't mind helping out with a prank.” He trailed off with a fake sigh as he turned around to face the boys, who were looking at his cauldron with mixed levels of caution on their faces.

“Stiles. You, uh, you didn't happen to make that potion yourself, did you?” Scott asked him cautiously, “Coz, well, I know that you’re the best out of us at potions, but I mean, you've yet to actually get one right this year.”  
“Tut, tut. Oh, ye of little faith! What good would I be as a prankster if I actually let my teachers see how good I am? I’d get caught out straight away if they knew I could make a fourth year potion like, say, Dogbreath.” He said with a smirk on his face. “Or, I don’t know, a third year potion like that ‘Fungiface’ one that plagued certain 6th and 7th year Slytherins last week, a mere three days after they’d cornered me and tried to beat me up for being friends with you. Imagine the sort of trouble that I’d get into if I were caught doing a prank like that?”

“Wait that was you?” George said, disbelief evident on his face, “that was priceless! McGonagall thought it was one of us Gryffindor’s, and she held a whole house meeting about it! Well, for everyone in third year and up, at least. Percy was griping about it for hours afterwards!”

“What’s in the cauldron, Stiles?” Lee piped up excitedly, a mischievous gleam in his eyes.

“Ahh, I thought you’d never ask! May I present to you … the Pompion potion. We’re going to be learning it later on this year. I was going to make something else, but I got caught sneaking up to the library last night, so I got up early this morning and started this. It just needs to be continuously stirred now until it turns orange, then it’s ready.” As he was saying that, he moved back over to the cauldron, and began stirring it clockwise.

Scott moved forward to pick up Stiles’ copy of their Potions textbook, looking from the picture tin the book to the cauldron and seeing that it looked exactly as the picture said it should. “So, what now? What’s your plan?”

“My plan, my young apprentice, is quite simple. We get the house elves to mix this into the pumpkin juice about halfway into the feast. Then, we make sure that we also drink it, to avoid suspicion that it was us. Everyone will find that their heads begin turning into pumpkins. The longer we leave the potion to sit, the longer it will last, but it should wear off by about midnight – our own perfect little Cinderella story!” he turned the heat off the cauldron and looked up. Fred and George had twin looks of confusion on their faces, but Lee and Scott looked to be getting the joke. Ah, right. British Purebloods. They wouldn't get the reference. “It’s a muggle children’s story, where Cinderella has a spell cast on her that runs out at midnight. Her carriage is a pumpkin that’s been transfigured.”

They still looked concerned at the story, but were quickly side-tracked by Tookey popping back in to take the cauldron when Stiles called for her.

“So, now we just wait until Halloween?” Lee asked excitedly.

“Now we wait.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oooh, their first big prank at Hogwarts - I wonder how it will go?  
> The prank will be in the next chapter, will the boys be caught out?  
> Read on to find out more ...


	8. FIlch's Office

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys have their first major prank, but who will take the blame?  
> Plus, a discovery is made in Filch's office that could change their very future at the school ...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set: October 31st, plus a scene at the end that is set nearly two weeks later.

Stiles was sitting at his own table on Tuesday night. Professor Quirrell had held him and Jackson back after class after he caught Jackson sending Stiles a nasty note in class, so he had been cornered by the other first year boys and had been told in no uncertain terms that he was sitting with them for the feast. He didn’t mind too much as it would mean that he got a closer look at his housemates turning into pumpkins, but from the look on Scott’s face he was upset that they wouldn’t be sitting together. Stiles just winked at him and raised his goblet with a smirk. They’d see each other the following morning for their joint potions class.

 

* * *

 

It was almost desert time when Stiles heard the first pop. It came from about halfway down the Hufflepuff table. Good. No-one really had any animosity towards the Hufflepuff students, so they wouldn’t be pointing fingers towards any house groups in particular. He waited until there were ten more pumpkin heads visible before raising his own goblet to his lips to drink. The effect was instantaneous. He felt strange as he looked around the hall with orange-tinted vision. He could see that his friends is Griffindor had all taken a swig of their drink as well, and laughed loudly at the sight before him.

Over half of the hall had fallen victim to the prank before someone finally cottoned on that it was in the pumpkin juice. Those who had yet to be affected drank from the water goblets instead, but Stiles had also made sure that it would be mixed into the gravy. Unfortunately, he hadn’t been able to convince the elves to put the potion into the drinks at the staff table, but that didn’t stop the teachers from all pushing their drinks away from them. Well, everybody except Professor Dumbledore. He looked positively delighted as he summoned one of the pumpkin juice jugs from the Ravenclaw table and took a swig out of it. His beard disappeared as his head turned into a sad, old looking pumpkin, but he simply chuckled and offered it to both Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape, who were sitting on either side of him.

All in all, they managed to get about 80% of the students with the potion.

 

 

“SILENCE!” Professor McGonagall’s voice boomed over the laughter that rang around the hall. “I have been assured by Professor Snape that this is a simple Pompion Potion. I do ask you to please be careful, as your heads are currently quite fragile.” She paused to let her stern gaze sweep over the hall, “I assure you that should the culprit be found, they will be receiving a month’s worth of detention with myself, for the disruption to this time honoured feast. The effects should wear off within the next few hours, so everyone please return to your common rooms. That is all.”

Stiles looked over the staff table and could see McGonagall trying to tell Professor Dumbledore to take the matter seriously, while Professor Snape glared out at the leaving students, his eyes lingering over those who he believed to be the culprits: the Weasley twins. Stiles was just glad that he wasn’t looking towards his own house. He always got the feeling that Professor Snape could read his mind, and tried to think innocent thoughts as much as possible around the man.

 

* * *

 

The twins had been blamed for the prank.

They had been confronted by Professor McGonagall and had confessed to being the masterminds, but hadn’t sold out their friends. They didn’t mind taking the detentions, they couldn’t go anywhere without at least one student congratulating them on a prank well done. Stiles didn’t like the attention, though. He tried to stay under the radar as much as possible, but it was becoming impossible to do so when standing next to ‘The Wonder Twins’, as they had been calling themselves for the past week now.

He was currently avoiding the attention by sitting in the corner of the kitchens with a platter of sandwiches and doing his charms homework. It was getting cold enough outside that he didn’t mind spending his Saturday afternoon indoors.

It had been mostly quiet for some time now. The elves were cleaning up the lunch dishes and were happy to let him sit quietly in the corner, content in the knowledge that he would call out if he wanted anything else. So when the portrait opened with a loud bang, he might have been forgiven for his very not-girly squeal of fright.

There standing in the doorway was his four best friends, George standing in the front with an old bit of parchment in his hands. “Why didn’t you tell us that you knew where the bloody kitchens were?” he yelled, as the painting closed behind them with a quiet snap. The elves were looking between Stiles and his friends in confusion, not sure whether to greet their new guests or not.

“Um, hello?” Stiles called over to them, “nice to see you guys too? Come sit with me. The elves will bring you a snack, if you’re hungry.”

At his invitation, Galby and Rodpey surged forward with more sandwich platters, herding the boys towards Stiles’ table in the corner. “I thought you guys knew where it was. I only knew about it because I followed Charlie and Tonks down here once. How else do you think I’ve been able to slip the potion into people’s drinks for my pranks?”

The boys looked stumped at that, but Stiles’ attention was drawn to the parchment that George had put on the table. Now that it was up close, Stiles could see that it was a map of some sort, complete with footprints of what looked like every student and teacher in Hogwarts.

“Where did you guys get this?” he asked, pulling the map closer, “I thought Hogwarts was supposed to be unplottable?”

“Nicked it from Filch’s office the other day, when he dragged us in there to write up our detentions for the Pumpkin thing. He went off to grab old McGonagall, so we went through his draws. He has loads of confiscated stuff in there! We definitely have to go back and raid it at some stage.” Fred said, “There’s enough pranking supplies in that office to last us until O.W.L.S.! I bet he doesn’t even know what half of that stuff is, he just took it because it looked suspicious. Anyway, we were going through this cabinet marked ‘Marauders’, which was just full of old detention write-ups about these four Griffindor blokes, when we saw this piece of blank parchment stuffed in there. It was just filed under ‘looks suspicious’. So, we nicked it. Tried to get it to reveal its secrets and it made us prove we weren’t teachers by answering these questions like: ‘you come across an unattended stash of Dungbombs, what do you do?’ So of course I said ‘you throw them in the girl’s bathroom and run’. Then it told us to tap the parchment and say ‘I solemnly swear that I am up to no good’, and it turned into a map of the castle! Bloody brilliant, I’ll say!”

“So, imagine our surprise when we take it to Scotty here, and the first thing he wants to use it for is to find you. We searched all the places where you usually are, but you weren’t anywhere. Lee here got distracted by the Kitchens, so we looked closer at it to see how to get to it, and lo and behold! There you are, sitting in the kitchens. Which you’d not told us about at all!” George continued on when Fred stopped explaining to accept the pumpkin juice that the elves were offering him. “So, yea. We came straight here.”

“This is amazing. There are so many hidden passageways on this thing! Think of how many pranks we could pull! We would be able to tell if a teacher of another student were coming!” Stiles exclaimed, pouring over the map, trying to memorise as many hidden passageways as possible.

“I know! It’s going to be amazing. We’ve already got an idea for our next one, too. You’re going to love it.” Lee said, bringing out his ‘prank ideas’ book from his pocket. It said ‘History of Magic’ notes on the outside, to deter anyone from picking it up or reading it. “So, we were thinking of doing this one when everyone comes back from Christmas holidays …”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, it's earlier than my usual update but i've gotten pretty far ahead on this story, so I thought i'd add in an extra one. Don't worry, I will still be uploading on my regular schedule next Monday. :)


	9. I'm coming home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys are on the way home for the holidays.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set: Saturday 23rd December.

“You all packed and ready to go?” Scott asked, as though he couldn’t see the giant trunk that Stiles was lugging behind him.  
“Nah, this is all filled with food from the kitchens,” Stiles replied, tone heavy with sarcasm, “I figured that I’d leave all of my actual packing until after breakfast, when I’ve got barely any time to do it.”  
“Eh. I wouldn’t be surprised.” Came a voice from behind them. Spinning around, Stiles saw Lee coming up behind them.

They moved to the front of the Entrance Hall together to drop off their trunks, which would be transported down to the train during breakfast. They were about to head back in to eat when Lee froze, gazing at Stiles’ trunk with a horrified expression on his face. “Stilinski…” he muttered under his breath.

Scott and Stiles were glanced at each other in confusion. “Uh, Lee, you alright mate? You look like you’ve seen a boggart!” Scott asked.

Lee looked up at the two boys, before focusing his gaze on Stiles. “Stilinski. Your last name is Stilinski.”  
“Yes?” Stiles asked him questioningly, suddenly concerned for his friend’s mental health. “You’ve heard Professor Snape yell it out so many times over the last term, did you not realise that that was me or something?”

“Of course I bloody knew it was you, I just didn’t _realise._ But of course … Stiles, Stiles Stilinski. Son of Claudia Stilinski.” Lee said, wincing as he saw both the boy’s faces fall at the mention of Stiles’ mum’s name. “I met your mum in the hospital a couple of times. My mum was the Healer in Charge of her case.”

“Yea, I know. I figured if you weren’t going to say anything then I wasn’t, though.” Stiles says quietly, “mum already had ‘Vanishing Sickness’ for a few years before she got to St. Mungos though, there was nothing that they could really do for her. Your mum was really good with making sure that she was as comfortable as possible, though. Especially in those last few weeks.”

The boys fell into an awkward silence at that, none of them quite sure what to say to break the heavy silence that had befallen their small group. 

 

* * *

 

They had spent most of the train trip with Scott, Fred and George playing cards in the corner. Lee was watching on over George’s shoulder, gesturing to the other two boys to help them cheat. It wasn’t until the lunch lady knocked on the door that George looked behind him to tell her that they were fine that he figured out the cause behind his long running losing streak. As he had turned around, Lee had been in the middle of holding up his fingers, showing Scott what cards to ask for in their round of _Go Fish._

“Lee! Have you been doing that this whole time?” he exclaimed loudly. The lunch lady shook her head with a smile and a chuckle, before closing the door behind her.  
“No! Scott just looked upset that he hasn’t gotten a card recently, I thought that he could use the help!” Lee exclaimed.

George looked ready to believe the all too innocent expression crossing his mischievous friend’s face, until he heard a snort from the corner of their carriage. Without looking up from the advanced charms book he was reading, Stiles spoke up. “He’s been helping them since you thrashed him in that first game. They’ve all just been waiting for you to notice. I can’t believe you were going to fall for his fake innocence. I’m ashamed to call you a fellow prankster.”

“STILES!” Scott and Fred yelled in unison.  
“I can’t believe you’d sell us out like that! You’re not even playing!” Fred said, but a quick glance up at his smirking face showed Stiles that he wasn’t actually upset at their trick being outed. “Where did you even get that book from, anyway? I thought we couldn’t take library books home for the holidays?”

“I nicked it off a sixth year yesterday. He keeps trying to trip me up in the common room, so I figure he deserves it.” Stiles responded, finally putting the book down. “I’m trying to find this charm I heard about, to summon things to you. I’ve had some ideas about our back to school prank.”

“Oooh, cool! We’re going to grab those plants from mum’s garden, too. She’ll never notice they’re even gone.” Fred started.  
“And we’ve almost convinced Charlie to help us stun some gnomes. Mum makes us de-gnome the garden every holiday anyway, so she won’t be suspicious about us foraging around in the garden. We’ll do it then.” George finished.  
“Excellent.” Lee said, bringing their plans out from his bag. “Ok, so we’ve got that part covered. Stiles, what is this charm and how does it work?”

They spent the rest of the trip planning out the rest of the details of their prank, not even noticing the landscape travelling until they were pulling in to the station. 


	10. Merry Christmas, mum.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stiles has his first Christmas without his mum.  
> *POSSIBLE TRIGGER WARNING* he has a panic attack while visiting his mum's grave.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set: Christmas day.

“Hey, mum. Sorry I haven’t been by in a while. It looks like dad has, though. These flowers look fresh, if arranged weirdly. Dad never could quite get the flowers right on his own. I started at Hogwarts back in September, along with Scott McCall. You remember him, don’t you? I should have realised he was magical earlier. You and mama McCall were pushing us to be friends from the day we arrived, and you didn’t trust _anyone_ to look after me. We got sorted into different houses, though. They have house groups at Hogwarts, it’s really weird, and we’re supposed to hate everyone that’s not in our house. The teachers say we aren’t, but even some of the Heads of Houses don’t like each other.

It’s nothing like what you described Durmstrang to be. The classes are pretty similar, though. Potions is easy, but I pretend it’s not. I don’t think the potions teacher likes me very much, but sometimes when I’m sitting at the Griffindor table I catch him watching me. Oh, that’s Scott’s house. ‘The house of the _brave_ ’, as if he’d be anywhere else. He’s so selfless and he always rushes into everything head on. I got into Slytherin. That’s the house for cunning people. Figures I’d be in there.

I haven’t even been caught out on a prank once, it’s awesome! The teachers don’t expect me to be very good at practical magic, so they don’t even think a little firsty like me could be doing it. It’s pretty easy though. Potions is just like cooking. I got pretty good at cooking when you got sick. Remember, mum? I used to always burn the toast and spill things everywhere. I’m not like that now, though. Dad’s been cooking with magic again now that I’m not always in the kitchen, I can tell because all of the muggle machines are gone. It’s not the same without you there. He tries, but it just doesn’t taste the same. Nothing tastes as good as when you used to make it.

Nothing’s as good as when you were here.

I made some new friends at school. None in my house, though. There’s this one girl, Lydia, she’s beautiful mum! Almost as pretty as you are. Were. The way she moves is just … and when she talks … you know that she’s got something smart to say, even if she’s better than me at pretending to be dumb. She doesn’t like me very much, but that’s ok. I’ve got a 5 year plan in place. I won’t tell you just yet, it’ll jinx it, but five years from now I’ll bring her to meet you. You’ll see.

I was thinking of bringing my friend Lee here to meet you maybe over summer. His mother was your healer, so you’ve probably met him already. He figured out who I was, but I don’t think he’s told the twins. They’re my other best friends, the Weasley twins. They get up to just as much mischief as I do, but they’re not very good at not getting caught! They’re all in Griffindor with Scott.

Scott tried flying for the first time this year. Apparently his dad never used to let him fly, and his mum was never fond of it so he’d never tried it before. He fell off three times in the first lesson, it was hilarious! You would have laughed so hard, I remember you used to laugh whenever I fell off my broom. The twins are pretty decent flyers. Apparently they’ve got a Quiddich pitch in their backyard! I got invited over there to join in the Christmas match this afternoon, but I told them dad said no. He needs me more.

He hadn’t gotten up yet when I left this morning, but that’s ok. He knows where I am, he can come and visit you when he’s ready. You know he’s not so good with the emotional stuff. Scott said he overheard dad talking to his mum about doing Christmas dinner together, but they haven’t told anything to us yet and we were supposed to be in bed so I haven’t asked him.

It was weird waking up this morning without you. Even when you were sick, you never missed a single Christmas morning. I don’t know how to do Christmas morning without you, mum. I just … I don’t know what to do” Stiles broke off with a sob.

He was sitting next to his mother’s grave, leaning his back against the side of the large headstone. He’d woken up this morning thinking that the last six months had all been a horrible dream, that if he just ran into his parents’ room he’d find them both cuddled up together under the blankets. He whipped his sheets back and padded down to their room, cracking the door open to see his dad sleeping in her old chair by the bed, their wedding album open on his lap.

Reality hit him so hard that it felt like he’d been punched in the chest. Surely it wasn’t possible to feel this much, for this much pain to fit inside his body? He closed the door behind him before pulling on his shoes and running out of the house. He didn’t stop to think about where he was going until he was there, the pain in his sides momentarily distracting him from the bone-deep ache in his chest, but when he stopped he knew that there was nowhere else he could possibly had gone.

He sat down next to her grave and cried harder than he’d ever cried. He’d been strong when she died, strong when she was buried, and strong every day since. His dad was barely holding it together himself, he could hardly deal with Stiles falling apart at the same time.

A while later, he wasn’t sure how long, he’d started to talk. He spoke as though his mum was listening, it was too hard to imagine that she wasn’t, but now the ache was coming back. Reality was hitting him like a stone: he was never going to see his mother alive again. Ever.

He could feel the panic attack coming on, but he couldn’t stop it. His breaths came in short, wheezing puffs, his heart racing in his ears. His vision was going blurry when he felt arms come around him from behind. He leant back into the warm embrace, his father’s familiar scent helping to calm him down. He knew that his dad was speaking, but his brain was still too far gone to comprehend the noise. He focused on trying to gulp air into his oxygen deprived lungs, and slowly his breaths started coming easier.

“That’s it, kiddo. Deep breaths. I’ve got you.” His dad said. He collapsed backwards into his dad’s arms, exhausted enough that he couldn’t hold his own weight. He could feel his dad pick him up, but his feeble protests were ignored as his dad carried him gently towards the entrance of the cemetery. He was asleep before they’d hit the front gates.

 

* * *

 

When he woke up, he was lying on the couch with his head in someone’s lap. He opened his eyes blearily to see that it was Scott’s mum, sitting on his couch running her hands through his hair. He’d buzzed it all off when his mum’s hair had all disappeared a year ago, only for it to return the next week. She had laughed and said, “Kochanie, you are always handsome to me. Whether you have hair or not, you will always be my handsome boy.” It was growing long again now and he knew he needed to get it cut but his mother always liked it long so he couldn’t bring himself to ask his father to cut it off again.

He closed his eyes again and snuggled further into Melissa’s lap. He hadn’t had an embrace like this in too long, and he didn’t want to admit he was awake and end it now. Her fingers stilled in his hair for a minute, before she began running them through his hair again.

“It’s the third person this week we’ve had come in, John. It’s not even the full moon, why are they attacking now?” she asked his father, who must have been in the room.  
“We don’t know. Obviously they aren’t turning, because this guy isn’t transformed when he attacks, but that brings forward the question of why do it in the first place.” His dad responded.  
“Fear, maybe?” Melissa asked.

There was a pause in conversation, like John was considering her answer.  
“Possibly. If only we knew more about him, we could catch the guy. He may not be able to change these people, but he’s disfiguring them for life. Scrimgeour says that if he’s not caught soon, we’ll be bringing in a beast hunter from France.”

Their conversation was cut short by the front door slamming open. Scott ran inside, calling out at the top of his lungs for Stiles, who was so shocked at the sudden noise that he sat bolt upright. Well, he tried to at least. Somehow he managed to end up on the floor, face smushed into the carpet and bum sticking straight up in the air.

He rolled over so that he was lying on the ground, glaring up at his best friend staring down at him with a smirk on his face.

“Merry Christmas!” Scott called, dropping a large package onto Stiles’ stomach, “I’m back from dad’s house, so we can have fun now!”

With a smirk, Stiles shot his left arm out, swiping Scott’s feet out from underneath him so he fell onto his face next to Stiles. They took one glance at each other and burst out laughing, neither quite sure what it was they were laughing at.

Merry Christmas, indeed. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kochanie = baby; a polish term of endearment.


	11. not a chapter

Hey guys!   
Not a chapter, just an apology. I've been in hospital the last couple of weeks, so I haven't had access to my laptop. Hopefully I'm getting out today, so I should be posting a real update within the next few days.   
Regards,   
Sarah.


	12. A prank gone wrong

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys might have gone to far this time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please forgive me for my painful attempt at writing Hagrid.

The twins had indeed managed to procure the gnomes, with Charlie promising that the stunning spell would last until at least the middle of the night. They had hidden them away inside an oddly shaped duffel bag that Stiles still couldn’t believe they had snuck past their mothers’ watchful eye.

The boys spent the trip dozing and sharing stories about their holidays, with everyone agreeing on how horrible Scott’s two days at his father’s house were. By the time they arrived at the station, the boys were all hungry and anxious to get their prank underway. They each stuffed a gnome into each pocket of their cloaks, concealing them by sticking their hands in too.

Shuffling along behind everyone, they managed to be the last to drop their bags off at the collection point. Stiles went over to distract Hagrid as the boys stuck the gnomes in random bags, for their unsuspecting owners to find later.

“Hiya Hagrid!” he called up to the giant. He bent down to scratch behind the puppies ears, noticing how large it had grown since the start of the school year. “Hi Fang!”  
“Hello there Stiles, not causing any mischief, I hope?” Hagrid asked him suspiciously. For some reason, Stiles was never able to put anything past the friendly giant.  
“Who, me? Never!” He exclaimed, putting on his best affronted look, “I just came by to ask how your Christmas went. It must suck to have to stay here every year. What do the teachers do on Christmas day?” he asked as his friends came up behind him.

Hagrid eyed them all suspiciously before turning his attention to the friendly young Slytherin. “Oh, you know, Dumbledore always comes down ter me hut to visit for a cup o’ mead Christmas Eve, and there’s the feast with all of the students who stay behind. Come on, into the carriages.” The carriages only seated four, so Stiles was left to sit in a carriage with Hagrid and his dog while his friends went on ahead.

He tried to pay attention to the man’s holiday stories but he couldn’t take his eyes off the skeletal black horse that was pulling the carriage along.  
“Hagrid, what is that?” He was vaguely aware of having cut Hagrid off mid-sentence, but couldn’t find it in himself to care as the animal turned back and stared straight at him.  
“You can see ‘em, can ya?” Hagrid asked forlornly, “that there’s a Thestral. We have a whole herd of ‘em here, trained ‘em up meself, I did. Reckon we’ve got the largest herd of ‘em in Europe at Hogwarts.” The carriage pulled to a stop as they reached the doors to the Entrance Hall. “Not everybody can see ‘em, ya see Stiles. It’s not a bad thing that you can, mind. They’re harmless creatures. Fiercely loyal, if you treat them right. Come on, into the school you go. Yer late enough as it is!”

By the time Stiles got back to his room later that night, he was utterly exhausted from the day’s travels. Seeing that his possessions had been delivered to his bed, he quickly unpacked and crawled into bed. He was almost asleep when he heard the first scream coming from the girl’s dormitories, followed by a chorus of shrieks and thundering feet as they all ran into the common room. He ran out with the other boys in his room to see Sadie being chased around by a garden gnome, with all the other first girls in the dormitory standing on the chairs in order to avoid having their ankles bitten.

Almost at once, the boys all burst into laughter at the sight in front of them.  
Muted shouting could be heard coming from the 7th year boys room, shortly followed by silence. Stiles quickly moved to the side in order to avoid being bowled over by the furious boys as they came charging into the common room, sending ‘stupefy’ spells every which way.

“Whichever house has pranked us will not know what hit them!” one of the boys roared, before rounding on Stiles, “you had better pray it wasn’t those brats you call friends, or else you’ll be suffering worse consequences than you thought imaginable, boy. This pranking has gone on for long enough!”

There was a stunned silence throughout the common room following that statement, before the 7th year boy stormed back toward his dormitory. Feeling the stares of his house on him, Stiles ran back to his room and dived into his bed. Maybe they had gone a touch too far with that one.

* * *

 

He had successfully avoided his roommate’s attempts to bring him out from under his covers the previous night, and was out of the room well before anyone else was up the next morning. In truth, he hadn’t slept a wink through the night, petrified that one of the older boys was going to grab him in his sleep.  
By lunchtime he was able to walk about the castle without jumping at every sudden noise and movement, as tales of gnome attacks spread throughout the students. There was an unspoken agreement between the boys to stay away from each other, so as not to arouse suspicion, but it wasn’t until Stiles saw the Evening Prophet that night at dinner that he was able to truly breathe easy again.

Splashed across the front page was the headline “Gnome mercy at Hogwarts”, followed by a story about how the sudden infestation of Hogwarts was being blamed on the Hogsmead tribe of garden gnomes, with calls from concerned parents to provide better security for their children’s possessions. The 7th year who had yelled at him the previous night placed the Prophet in front of Stiles before moving off to sit with his friends, and Stiles gathered that this was as close to an apology as he was going to get. He looked over at the Griffindor table and saw that Lee was enthusiastically shoving the Evening Prophet in Scott’s face and smiled.

They’d gotten away with it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my gosh, I know it's been months since I last posted an update and i'm super sorry!  
> I got really sick for a long time and it was too painful to move, let alone type, but i'm almost better now so I quickly bashed out this small update for you. There's also a side article that I've uploaded called 'Gnome Mercy', so check that out.  
> I've also posted 2 new short fics in my 'tumblr prompts' folder, so head over and check those out as well!


	13. A chance encounter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I am sooo sorry guys, I know that it has been forever since I last updated this story, and I have no excuse!   
> I saw the 'Book of Potions' by Zygmunt Bulge on Pottermore, however, and got inspired to write this little filler fluff piece.

He was searching for an advanced potions book in the library, when he came across one by an author called _Zygmunt Budge_. Chuckling softly, he flipped it open to see if there was a potion in there that he could use. Seeing an interesting sleeping potion, he slowly walked over to the nearest table, not paying attention to the person sitting there as he was trying to figure out if he would be able to brew the potion unassisted or not.

“That’s a bit advanced for a first-year, isn’t it?” Stiles jumped the deep voice coming from across the table, causing the dark-haired Hufflepuff sitting at his table to chuckle at his expense.   
“Derek! Hi!” Stiles squeaked out in surprise, “What are you doing here?”   
“Well, _Stiles_ ,” he said exasperatedly, “This is a library, you know? I have an essay to write for Potions. Why are you looking at such an advanced book?”

Stiles glanced down at the book quickly before looking back up at Derek, “Well I wasn’t actually looking for this one to be honest, but then I saw the guy’s name and I had to look at it, you know?” he carefully tossed the book over to Derek, before leaning back in his chair to stare at the older boy.  

“I don’t get it, what’s so special about the name Zygmunt Budge?” Derek asked, pronouncing the name perfectly, “You have something against funny-sounding names?”   
“What? NO! I – wait. You pronounced my name properly.” Stiles spluttered out, “no-one gets my name right the first go.”   
“Your name?” Derek asked confusedly, “I thought your name was Stiles?”   
“Well, yea, but then also no.” Stiles said with a smirk, “Didn’t you hear McGonagall stumble over my name during the sorting? My name is Zygmunt Stilinski. Stiles is just a nickname because no-one ever gets my name right. But you did, do you know another Zygmunt?”   
“No, but I _have_ read this book before. My mother bought it a few years ago, back when my uncle Peter had a doxy infestation. She needed the instructions to make up doxycide for him, he was always terrible at potions.” Derek explained, before opening the book up to have a closer look.

Stiles figured that it was a lost cause for now and swiped his discarded potions text from the table. Looking at the contents page, he found the potion he was looking for: _Hiccoughing Solution_. It was a fairly advanced potion, but looked to only need four hours to brew. Seeing that Derek had discarded his essay in favour of looking over the far more interesting contents of Zygmunt Bulge’s book he pulled out his transfiguration homework to complete, figuring that he would swipe a copy of _Advanced Potion-Making_ from one of the 7 th year boys in his own house later that week.

It was hours later when the two parted ways, having completed their homework tasks in amicable silence. Stiles decided that they were friends now, whether Derek liked it or not.  


End file.
